Lionsgate buys Starz for $4.4 billion

Lionsgate, the film studio behind the “Hunger Games” movie franchise, said on Thursday it would buy premium TV network Starz for $4.4 billion in cash and stock.

The deal, the subject of on-again, off-again rumors for months, will unite two media companies with ties to cable mogul John Malone.

Lionsgate will pay $32.70 per share for Starz, representing a premium of nearly 16 percent to Starz’s closing price on Wednesday. Shares of Starz, spun off from Malone’s Liberty Media in 2013, gained 12.8 percent in pre-market trading, to $31.86 — below the offered price.

Shares of Lionsgate were up 9.2 percent in pre-market trading.

The Post reported this week, citing a source close to the deal, that the talks had run into trouble because of the steep and sudden decline in the value of the British pound in the wake of the Brexit vote.

But the pound’s quick recovery in value versus the dollar brought back to the table one of the banks that had briefly walked away, the source said.

Lionsgate expects the deal to be “highly accretive,” it said Thursday.

As part of the deal, which was approved by the boards of both companies, Lionsgate’s shares will be equally split into voting and non-voting shares.

Starz had been in merger talks with a range of media companies, from Twenty-First Century Fox to CBS and AMC Networks. The Chris Albrecht-led pay-TV company competes with HBO and Showtime. Its original programming includes “Power,” a drama about a New York City drug dealer, and “Outlander,” a fantasy series.

Lionsgate and Malone own shares in Starz, while Malone is also a Lionsgate shareholder who sits on its board.

PJT Partners was the lead financial adviser to Lionsgate, while J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse were its financial advisers.

Starz was advised by LionTree Advisors.